Curmudgeon’s Perspective

Fred sat at the end of the table, sweating and looking at the six of us as we waited expectantly for his decision. He hemmed, he hawed. And he asked to go over the options yet one more time. “It’s easy, Fred. Settle or sue. We’ve been here over ...

“It’s the silence that gets me most,” he said. We were sitting in his small office in a 1950’s building just off the main drag. His name was stenciled on the frosted glass door. He looked at the silent phone and absent-mindedly checked his ...

It didn’t matter whether she had asked for the meeting, or how much her secretary or associates cajoled her. Rebecca always arrived late, in a flurry of activity and perfunctory apologies. For most of us, being late is an accident, a mistake or ...

As I entered my firm’s building the other day, I held the outer door open for several of our young attorneys. When a young woman then turned to hold the inside door open for us, one of the men made a bit of a scene (partly for my benefit, no ...

The other day, in a team review of new hire candidates, I was stunned to hear someone say they’d never be able to work with “someone like that.” All three candidates were at the top of their classes. Each had interviewed superbly and came highly ...

The other day, I took one of our new aggressive associates with me to meet my oldest client, who was bringing along his 20-something son. Over lunch, the talk turned to Twitter and Facebook, and the two kids discussed how far behind the ...